A normal user's look into the world of 3D Stereo Technologies

The 3D DLP projectors are one of the most affordable solutions to get a large screen with 3D support, whether it is for watching 3D movies at home or for playing games in stereo 3D with a better sense of immersion. There are a lots of models available on the market using various interfaces and having different resolutions and capabilities and all of these may cause a confusion and as a result you may end up with a 3D-capable projectors that does not work the way you wanted it. There are a few very important things that you should be aware of when considering buying a new 3D DLP projector or already have one, but you still haven’t used its 3D capabilities and you want to try them out. One of the most important advantages, besides the large projected screen of a 3D DLP projector is the fact that the technology does not suffer from issues with crosstalk, unlike 3D-capable monitors or 3D HDTVs. So let us see what is the most important information that you need to know.

When talking about a consumer level affordable 3D DLP projectors there are two main types of modes being used for providing support for stereo 3D, these are frame sequential input (can be over a VGA or HDMI interface) or HDMI 1.4 frame packaging. The interface and mode being used by a 3D DLP projector is very essential on what else will you need and how can you use the projector, so you must carefully choose the right interface based on what toy are going to be using the projector for and even depending on what other hardware you have in your PC. You should be well aware of the fact that there are still no affordable consumer level 3D DLP projectors capable of providing 1080p resolution in 3D mode with high-enough refresh rate for comfortable gaming. So regardless of the interface a 3D DLP projector uses and the native resolution it supports you can forget about being able to play games in stereo 3D mode at 1080p resolution for now, but you can still watch 3D movies at Full HD resolution if the projector is with 1080p native resolution. And this is just one of the examples of the limitations and features you should be well aware of when considering to use a 3D DLP projector, especially if you still haven’t purchased one. But there are a lot more specific things…

3D DLP Projector with frame sequential support:

– You can supply the frame sequential output over VGA or HDMI 1.3 interface.
– The projector is limited to 720p resolution in stereo 3D mode as maximum.
– In order to use the projector in stereo 3D mode it has to be in its native resolution (can be up to 720p).
– Besides being able to use stereo 3D mode at 60Hz per eye, you can also use 120Hz refresh rate in 2D mode.
– You can use any standard pair of DLP Link glasses with it, there is no need for any kind of emitter as the technology uses special kind of white light flashes embedded in the image being displayed.
– With DLP Link glasses you are good to watch 3D videos with the help of any software player capable of outputting 3D in frame sequential mode such as the Stereoscopic Player for example.
– With DLP Link glasses you are not able to directly play games in stereoscopic 3D mode or watch Blu-ray 3D movies without having to meet some additional hardware requirements and use extra software.
– You can use DLP Link glasses to play games in stereo 3D mode only if you have a compatible AMD-based graphics card supporting AMD’s HD3D technology (Radeon HD 5000 series and up) together with the TriDef 3D softare.
– You can use Nvidia’s 3D Vision active shutter glasses together with their specific IR emitter to play games in stereo 3D mode if you have a compatible Nvidia-based graphics card (GeForce 8×00 series and up), you can’t use DLP Link glasses with 3D Vision.
– Have in mind that both AMD and Nvidia have a list of officially supported 3D DLP projectors, so any model out of that list may or may not work, so there is no guarantee that you would be able to use it.
– If you want to be able to play Blu-ray 3D movies then DLP Link glasses are not an option and if you have AMD-based graphics you are out of luck, all of the software players supporting Blu-ray 3D playback on PC such as PowerDVD have support only for 3D DLP projectors using Nvidia’s 3D Vision technology.

3D DLP Projector with HDMI 1.4 frame packaged support:

– You need to use the HDMI 1.4 interface on the projector
– The projector should be either 720p or 1080p native resolution, you will be limited to respectively 720p or be able to use both 720p and 1080p resolutions for stereo 3D, but wit the limitation of using 720p resolution at only 50/60 Hz 3D mode or 1080p at 24Hz 3D mode.
– Even if the projector is with 1080p native resolution, the refresh rate supported at it in 3D mode is limited to 24Hz which is good on for 3D movies, for games you still have to resort back to 720p resolution where you can use either 50Hz or 60Hz in 3D mode.
– With HDMI 1.4 3D DLP projectors you are not able to use 120Hz refresh rate in 2D mode as you can with the frame sequential models.
– These projectors still rely mostly on the standard DLP Link glasses, though there are some models available offering RF glasses as well, but due to the specifics of the HDMI 1.4 3D support the type of glasses used is of not much concern as long as the projector is compatible with them.
– The 3D DLP Projector with HDMI 1.4 frame packaged support do not have support for frame sequential input.
– You cannot use the Nvidia 3D Vision active shutter glasses with these projectors, you either need a generic DLP Link glasses or any other specific model designed for the particular projector (RF glasses for example).
– You can play any kind of 3D videos and movies, including Blu-ray 3D movies as long as you have a software 3D video player and a video card capable of supporting HDMI 1.4 frame packaged output.
– All software players with support for Blu-ray 3D movie playback such as PowerDVD will be able to play 3D movies if you have at least an a second generation Intel Core processor (Sandy Bridge) in order to have support for Intel’s InTRU 3D technology, and this means Intel Core i3, Core i5 or Core i7 CPU, Pentium processors won’t do as they don’t feature InTRU 3D support. For owners of AMD-based video cards the minimum is Radeon HD 5000 series (all AMD HD3D capable video cards should work, though some may not support GPU acceleration for Blu-ray 3D) and for owners of Nvidia-based GPUs the minimum is GeForce GTX 260 or GeForce GT 320 according to Nvidia (some of supported GPUs might not have GPU acceleration).
– When talking about gaming in stereo 3D mode, using Intel’s integrated GPUs is out of the question as they are simply not powerful enough and regarding the AMD and Nvidia-based GPUs the limitation is the same as with Blu-ray 3D movie playback above – you need ca graphics card supporting either Nvidia’s 3DTV Play or AMD’s HD3D technology that can supply HDMI 1.4 frame packaged output.
– Owners of compatible AMD-based hardware with AMD HD3D technology supported need to use the TriDef 3D software (the same as frame sequential users would), owners of Nvidia-based graphics cards need to use Nvidia’s 3DTV Play software (instead of the 3D Vision for owners of frame sequential capable projectors).
– Have in mind that both AMD and Nvidia have a list of officially supported 3D DLP projectors, so any model out of that list may or may not work, so there is no guarantee that you would be able to use it.
– Projectors relying on HDMI 1.4 frame packaged input do tech do have more input lag than models using frame sequential input for stereo 3D and while this isn’t an issue for watching 3D video on them it can be a bit of a problem for some (not all) gamers playing in stereo 3D mode.

You should note that the newer 3D DLP projectors using HDMI 1.4 for 3D support are not suitable for some owners of older Nvidia-based hardware that would work with frame sequential models for example such as the GeForce 8800 which although old is still quite popular and widely used product and quite capable for gaming in the not so demanding 720p resolution even in stereo 3D mode. And with regards to the increased input lag required for the processing of the frame packaged 3D input and the lack of support for 120Hz 2D mode the frame sequential models might still be more attractive for people that are going to be using them mostly for gaming. On the other hand 3D DLP projectors using frame sequential mode are more restrictive and hard to setup for users that are going to be using them mostly for watching movies in 3D whereas the HDMI 1.4 interface makes it much easier. For gaming in stereo 3D mode on a 3D DLP projector there is still not way to get 1080p resolution, so the far that some 3D DLP projectors with HDMI 1.4 interface are with native resolution of 1080p does not help at all as you’d still have to resort to 720p resolution when playing games in stereo 3D mode anyway due to the limited refresh rate at the higher resolution.

DDD is offering a trial version of their TriDef 3D software and Nvidia also does offer you to download a 14-day trial version of the 3DTV Play software from their website, so you can get these to try things out and if everything works then you can buy a license for the software. There is no trial version of the 3D Vision software as it is a part of the Nvidia graphics driver now and it includes only free anaglyph 3D mode, the 3D Vision functionality is tied to hardware requirements as well anyway. If you already have the IR emitter of a 3D Vision kit connected to a PC you get free 3DTV Play functionality, so there is no need to buy a separate license for that.

As you can see 3D DLP projector support overlaps quite a bit in the frame sequential models, though there are some models and brands covered by official support only by either AMD or Nvidia. Unlike Nvidia however AMD is much more open to support for projectors supporting HDMI 1.4 frame packaging as there is no official list of devices on their website. Now, if you already own a 3D-capable DLP projector that is not on the list don’t worry, there is still some chance that you might be able to make it work via a workaround solution, however you should be warned that things like IR emitter emulators, or EDID override drivers may or may not work in your case and even if they tend to work you might face different issues or problems and you never know if they won’t stop working soon. So resort to trying the different workarounds (some of which are also being discussed on this website) as a last resort if you already own a device that is not on the officially compatible list, if you are making the decision on what to buy now, better choose a compatible model fitting your needs and requirements, as this can save you a lot of trouble later on.

Up until recently the affordable 1080p 3D-capable consumer projectors were considered to go for about $1500 USD, but it seems that BenQ is trying to bring the price range even lower to a $1000 USD level with their new BenQ W1070 1080p 3D DLP projector. The projector is appearing on the North American market with a price of $999 USD (hence the sub $1000) and in Europe you should be able to find it for less than 900 Euro. Aside from the W1070 version, BenQ also has a short throw model called W1080ST with the same specifications as the W1070 including 3D support, but with a short-throw lens. Of course the price of the W1080ST will be over $1000 USD, more like $1299 when it becomes available in the beginning of 2013. Both models are going to be interesting because of their affordable price among the home users with more limited budgets that want to be able to play Full HD 3D movies at home and even be able to play games in stereo 3D mode at 720p resolution. The lower resolution for stereo 3D gaming is caused by the fact that these 3D-capable projectors from BenQ are based around HDMI 1.4 frame packaging, though they apparently will also support Frame Sequential, Top-Bottom and Side-by-Side 3D modes across most interfaces. Both projectors are also officially compatible with Nvidia’s 3DTV Play software (using HDMI 1.4), but not officially compatible with 3D Vision (though up to 1280×800 the projector should be supported in frame sequential mode with up to 120Hz), so you will not be able to use the 3D Vision active shutter glasses and will need to go for DLP Link ones (not included in the standard price of the projector).

If you are looking for a 3D-capable projector that is going to be used mostly for gaming and the 1080p mode is not a requirement, then you might want to check out the BenQ W700 or W710ST (short throw version). These two are 720p 3D DLP projectors that use HDMI 1.3 interface and support 3D over frame sequential mode only, they are official 3D Vison ready devices that can be used with either 3D Vision active shutter glasses or DLP Link ones. The new BenQ W1070/W1080ST models support 1080p 3D mode only at 24Hz which is good for 3D movies, but not for gaming in stereo 3D mode, so even with them you will have to get down to 720p resolution. And using the HDMI 1.4 frame packaging mode for the 3D instead of frame sequential mode tends to increase the input lag and that is something you’d want to avoid as much as possible when talking about gaming.

The company IOGEAR is not new to 3D-capable products and more importantly to interesting and innovative such ones, you may remember their wireless 3D video streaming product. Now they’ve just announced another interesting device that centers around a 4-port HDMI switcher with some interesting 3D capabilities as extra. The device called 3D Complete+ comes with a built-in 2D to 3D autoconversion functionality, allowing you to convert pretty much any 2D source with HDMI output into stereoscopic 3D, though mind you it is still an automatic conversion, so it will not be as good as good real stereo 3D content being played back on a 3D-capable display. There isn’t a lot of information regarding the 2D to 3D conversion algorithm being used or what results should you expect, this is something that needs testing, but the interesting thing is that the user has control over not only the strength of the simulated 3D effect, but also on the level of depth and pop-out.

Furthermore the IOGEAR 3D Complete+ features some built-in video enhancement functionality intended to improve the quality of the content you are watching using the device, especially when playing back more seriously compressed video from Internet or and SD video that can be upscaled 480i/p to 720p HD and 720p to FULL HD 1080p). Support for de-interlacing, bad light correction and adaptive sharpening as well as de-blocking and noise reduction are among the built-in video enhancement function available with the device and apparently you have the ability to see a split-screen before and after image with and without the image enhancements active (you can disable them of course). But the extra functionality that doesn’t get that much attention in this device is the ability to output 3D content in “Page Flip” or “Frame Sequential” format intended for use with “3D Ready” (3D DLP) projectors connected as output 3D device. The device itself features HDMI 1.4 support for 3D content and you should be able to feed it with HDMI 1.4 frame packaged content from lets say a Blu-ray 3D player and output the 3D in frame sequential or page flipped format on a 3D DLP projector that does not feature HDMI 1.4 support. This extra functionality makes the IOGEAR 3D Complete+ even more attractive solution for people looking for an adapter to allow them to get HDMI 1.4 support on their earlier 3D-capable DLP projectors that don’t have hardware support for it.

The IOGEAR 3D Complete+ has an MSRP of $199.95 USD and should soon be available. The only problem with this device in particular as well as with all other IOGEAR products is that aside from North America they are not that easy to find elsewhere…